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November 11, 2016

Sat. Nov. 12, 2016

Thank you, Rutherford B. Hayes: The Posse Comitatus Act and Why We Need It Now More Than Ever

Maryland National Guard Sixth Regiment fighting its way through Baltimore, Maryland, 20 July 1877

Ironically In 1876, Hayes was elected president in one of the most contentious elections in national history. He lost the popular vote to DemocratSamuel J. Tildenbut he won an intensely disputed electoral college vote after a Congressional commission awarded him twenty contested electoral votes. The result was theCompromise of 1877, in which the Democrats acquiesced to Hayes's election and Hayes ended all U.S. military involvement in Southern politics. (from Wikipedia)

I don’t feel about writing an long history article about this, but the mere fact that I had to look this up is sobering, to say the least, appalling to say a bit more, and chilling to really lay it out the way it is.

The question is whether or not Trump could federalize the national guard to do his will inside the country.

The answer is that only governors can activate the guard to enforce the law. I thought this was the fact but had to look it up:

The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385, original at 20 Stat. 152) signed on June 18, 1878 by President Rutherford B. Hayes. The purpose of the act – in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807 – is to limit the powers of the federal government in using federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States. It was passed as an amendment to an army appropriation bill following the end of Reconstruction, and was subsequently updated in 1956 and 1981. en.wikipedia.org/…

In doing a little research I discovered that federal troop were actually employed during the Hayes administration in 1887, a year prior to the Posse Comitatus Act. They were used to put down the Great Railroad Strike.For history buffs there’s a lot of information about it here. Suffice to say, as the picture on the right shows, it wasn’t a pretty picture.

Those of us who were aware of the shootings at Kent State know what can happen when the forces of “law and order” feel they have the license to use deadly force. I will spare you the iconic Pulitzer Prize winning picture from May, 4, 1970. You can see it here. If you’re too young to remember this, it was the seminal domestic event that lead to student strikes across the United States. If you’re my age and were in college at the time, as a Kos reader, I expect you participated in them.

Not to be outdone the lesser tabloid trash-monger claims to have ultra-top secret national security information too.

I expect all of you know that Donald Trump and NationalEnquirerCEO David Pecker have been friends for years. ( nymag.com/… ).

This morning, once again I had to go through the check-out aisle of magazine Hell. Only now the election is over and the National Enquirer’s hero defeated their treasonous villain.

Yet what do I see next to the pre-election edition of the equally in the tank for Trump and anti-hillary Globe (left)?

Of course the usual heavy on red and yellow on black National Enquirer cover screaming another hateful message at me and my fellow mostly liberal Portland, Oregon shoppers.

The National Enquirer is telling hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of shoppers around the country that Hillary and Huma are going to jail for treason, influence peddling, and bribery.

Kind of given less prominence between that headline and the ones about the sex abuse cover-up, the secret hospitalization and truth about the gay affair, and Hillary being caught destroying Obama’s legacy is the absolutely incredible bombshell about Putin’s spy files!

If true, the CIA must love this.

Not the Washington Post, not the New York Times, not Newsweek, Time nor Mother Jones.

Not even from Wikileaks. The National Enquirer scopes all these investigative news organizations with one of the biggest scoops since the Rosenberg spy case.

I was already seething with anger as I was about to click publish when I thought I checked the National Enquirer online and, not to my surprise, found they are shamelessly gloating over predicting Trump would win (left).

So, readers, here’s my poll. My answer is “other” because I have opened it and used my iPhone to take pictures of the articles in case I

I did it so you wouldn’t have to.On the protests: The nightmare scenario is that Trump orders the National Guard (can he do that?) to stop the protests using non-lethal force --- that he would even have to add non-lethal force is incredible thought.... but of course this could lead to lethal force from both sides.. Kent State?Would soldiers who are after, all citizens too, actually using any kind of force against non-violent protests?Warning signs will come when we learn of his appointments.... that a sherrif -- however unhinged as David Clarke -- is being mentioned to head Homeland Security is appalling. That a mere county sheriff, even from a big city like Milwaukie, without the credibility of even a big city police commissioner like William Bratton (NYC) would even be mentioned to head up Homeland Security is strange, but this man is dangerous. Read this….
Trump’s Dr. Jekyll could stop Mr. Hyde from Tweeting this morning:

Sat., Nov. 12, 2016

A pretty photo with a grim reminder.

The author of this NY Review of Books article , Masha Gessen, was interviewed by Rachel Maddow. We, as a group, should understand that there is a human tendency among most (not all) people to be optimistic. This applies to how some pundits, and people we talk to, are trying to normalize Trump. How cn we expect a man whose campaign showed him to be anything but normal turn around and become a normal president? We must be pragmatic, and neither succumb to optimism nor pessimism because of our own psychological make-up. We must be realistic, weigh the evidence pragmatically, and if that leads us to be pessimistic, so be it. From the article:

More dangerously, Clinton’s and Obama’s very civil passages, which ended in applause lines, seemed to close off alternative responses to his minority victory. (It was hard not to be reminded of Neville Chamberlain’s statement, that “We should seek by all means in our power to avoid war, by analyzing possible causes, by trying to remove them, by discussion in a spirit of collaboration and good will.”) Both Clinton’s and Obama’s phrases about the peaceful transfer of power concealed the omission of a call to action. The protesters who took to the streets of New York, Los Angeles, and other American cities on Wednesday night did so not because of Clinton’s speech but in spite of it. One of the falsehoods in the Clinton speech was the implied equivalency between civil resistance and insurgency. This is an autocrat’s favorite con, the explanation for the violent suppression of peaceful protests the world over

The second falsehood is the pretense that America is starting from scratch and its president-elect is a tabula rasa. Or we are: “we owe him an open mind.” It was as though Donald Trump had not, in the course of his campaign, promised to deport US citizens, promised to create a system of surveillance targeted specifically at Muslim Americans, promised to build a wall on the border with Mexico, advocated war crimes, endorsed torture, and repeatedly threatened to jail Hillary Clinton herself. It was as though those statements and many more could be written off as so much campaign hyperbole and now that the campaign was over, Trump would be eager to become a regular, rule-abiding politician of the pre-Trump era.

But Trump is anything but a regular politician and this has been anything but a regular election. Trump will be only the fourth candidate in history and the second in more than a century to win the presidency after losing the popular vote. He is also probably the first candidate in history to win the presidency despite having been shown repeatedly by the national media to be a chronic liar, sexual predator, serial tax-avoider, and race-baiter who has attracted the likes of the Ku Klux Klan. Most important, Trump is the first candidate in memory who ran not for president but for autocrat—and won.

For political nitty gritted political junkies, let me add this article. My subheading is that the Trump Executive Branch machinations, with the personality clashes and conflicts we read about, won’t be any different than how it was in his campaign. Here’s proof.

The bitter infighting that plagued Donald Trump’s campaign during the Republican presidential primary is starting to spill over into his team’s efforts to establish an administration and political operation, according to more than half a dozen sources familiar with the planning efforts.

Those rifts and others are complicating what was an already a herculean task for Trump’s team: building a massive new government for a man who has never held public office.

“It's the same situation as in the primary – everyone has theknives out for each other,” said a Republican operative who worked with the campaign and is now advising people on the transition team.Read article

Read article. If you see me I will have lots of extra safety pins to hand out. I got to Freddy’s at 7 and bought the last pack of 50.

The Safety Pin Promise

The Promise

If you wear a hijab, I’ll sit with you on the train.

If you’re trans, I’ll go to the bathroom with you.

If you’re a person of color, I’ll stand with you if the cops stop you and/or whenever you need me.

If you’re a person with disabilities, I’ll hand you my megaphone.

If you’re LGBTQ, I won’t let anybody tell you you’re broken.

If you’re a woman, I’ll fight by your side for all your rights.

If you’re an immigrant, I’ll help you find resources.

If you’re a survivor, I’ll believe you.

If you’re a Native American, I’ll stand with you to protect our water, your burial grounds, and your people.

If you’re a refugee, I’ll make sure you’re welcome.

If you’re a union member, fighting for one, or fighting for $15/hour, I’ll be there.

If you’re a veteran, a college student, a member of the working or middle class, I’ll fight against austerity measures and for more publically funded assistance for all.

If you’re sick or just human, I’ll take up the fight for universal healthcare.

If you’re tired, me too.

If you need a hug, I’ve got an infinite supply.

If you need me, I’ll be with you. All I ask is that you be with me too.

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What do I think about and what I do I think about it?

May, 1, 2016

I migrated everything from April to the basement file cabinet, so fitting of Spring, this blog starts anew, unfortunately, again it’s Trump on my mind. The archives for the two months I have been sharing cyberspace with billions of bloggers are below.

If you are a new reader, welcome. I do this blog alone, but always welcome critiques and ideas from you, I mean you, whoever is actually reading these words.